John Haslet

John Haslet (1727-3 January 1777) was the colonel of the 1st Delaware Regiment of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Haslet commanded the largest battalion in the Continental Army, and he led it under George Washington in the battles for New York, the battle of Trenton, and the battle of Princeton, where he was killed.

Biography
John Haslet was born in 1727 in Straw, County Londonderry, Ireland to a family of Ulster Scots, and he attended the University of Glasgow in Scotland. Haslet became a Presbyterian minister in Ballykelly in 1752, and in 1764 he settled in Milford, Delaware in the Thirteen Colonies after serving as a captain in the Pennsylvania militia during the French and Indian War. Haslet was made the colonel of the 1st Delaware Regiment on 19 January 1776, the largest battalion in the Continental Army with a size of 800 troops. In July, he arrived in New York and fought alongside William Smallwood's Maryland troops at the Battle of Long Island. Haslet won a victory over a corps of Tories at the Battle of Mamaroneck on 22 October 1776, and he fought at White Plains, Trenton, and Princeton. On 3 January 1777, Haslet was shot in the head while leading his regiment to reinforce Hugh Mercer's embattled troops after he was wounded. Haslet died instantly, and he was buried in Philadelphia before his body was taken to Dover on 1 July 1841.